Mattrick, chief among the freedom fighters in Neathdale in South Dalemark.
Mayelbridwen, a form of the name Manaliabrid from Fenmark; Maewen Singer’s full name.
“May the clay purge from you…,” the start of the ritual spoken when the image of the One was put into its yearly fire. The speakers of this invocation had, for generations, no idea that what they were uttering was a spell for the unbinding of the One.
Medmere, the valley where Clennen the Singer was murdered. The round lake in the middle is the center of an old volcano.
Middle vokes, Lawschool slang for the second stage of the training course.
Midsummer flags, traditional bright banners flown at Midsummer Fairs all over Dalemark. The devices on them—the Eye, the Sheaf, the River, et cetera—are versions of the Old Writing. The flags are thought to be the debased remnants of flags once carried in religious ceremonies.
Milda, the mother of Mitt and afterward the wife of Hobin the gunsmith, who was the father of her two daughters. Sadly, neither Milda nor her daughters survived the Great Uprising. Though there are several highly colored stories about their deaths, the most likely theory is that they perished in the terrible violence and confusion after the mob stormed the Earl’s palace in Holand, when the earls of Dermath and Waywold sacked the city in reprisal.
Mitt, short for Alhammitt. Mitt was born at Dike End in the earldom of Holand in South Dalemark, on the day of the Sea Festival. He moved to the city of Holand as a child, where he became a freedom fighter and was forced to escape to the North to avoid arrest. After just under a year in Aberath, in training as a hearthman, he left to follow Noreth of Kredindale in her bid for the crown.
Modes, Lawschool slang for a progress report on the term’s work.
Moril, younger son of Clennen the Singer. Clennen bequeathed to Moril a cwidder said to have belonged to the minstrel Osfameron. After the death of his father, Moril went to Hannart in North Dalemark, where he briefly joined Hestefan the Singer before leaving to take part in the Great Uprising. He played a considerable part in the Uprising and afterward became court musician and chief architect of the Royal Dalemark Academy of Music, collecting traveling Singers from all over Dalemark and gathering them together in Kernsburgh. This caused such changes and improvements in the making of music that by the end of Amil the Great’s reign the old traveling Singers had ceased to exist.
Mount Tanil, a very tall volcano on the edge of the Marshes southeast of Gardale, thought by unlearned people to be the home of the One.
Mucks, Lawschool slang for gloved hands, the gloves often weighted by being stuffed with metal or stones.
Natives, the term given by the Heathen invaders to the prehistoric inhabitants of Dalemark, who were mostly dark and squarely built. After the invasion many of these people went South, where they intermarried with the settlers there to give rise to the average Southerner, pale-skinned and brown-haired. Those who stayed in the North interbred with the invaders to produce the brown-skinned, light-haired Northerner.
Navis Haddsson, third son of the Earl of Holand, a brilliant and efficient soldier and a ruthless politician, who was forced to escape North from the palace plots in Holand (he was disliked by both the old Earl and the new for having shown too much sympathy for the plight of the common people of Holand). He spent nearly a year as a hearthman in Adenmouth before leaving to follow Noreth of Kredindale and to take part in the Great Uprising. It was probably thanks to Navis that the bloodshed was not greater. Early in the reign of Amil the Great, Navis was made Duke of Kernsburgh, partly in reward for his services and partly because he then outranked the earls it was now his job to control. A year later he married Eltruda, widow of Lord Stair of Adenmouth.
Neathdale, a large market town in the South Dales, the seat of Earl Tholian. Because it was the last major town before the North, Neathdale flourished both on legal trade and by smuggling goods and people in and out of North Dalemark. The earls’ spies and security forces were particularly active there, which led to the Siege of Neathdale during the Great Uprising.
Nepstan, a country in the far South.
Nets, a potent item of magecraft, akin to weaving. The netmaker, working with power, could design his net to perform various tasks. Kankredin’s soulnet, besides trapping departing souls, was intended to draw Gull’s soul to him and to bind the One. Tanamil’s nets likewise had several purposes: concealing the army, blocking the mages, and forcing them to assume their true shapes.
New Flate, the drained flatlands some miles west of Holand in South Dalemark, where Halain, grandfather of Earl Hadd, was supposed to have had dikes dug and drained the sea marsh. In fact, the New Flate was probably older than that. It was very fertile farmland but was denied prosperity until the reign of Amil the Great by the ridiculously high taxes imposed by the earls of Holand.
Noreth, known as Onesdaughter, of whom it was said that the One spoke to her all her life, telling her she was to take the crown when she reached the age of eighteen. She was born in Kredindale to the Lord’s unmarried daughter, Eleth, who died soon after Noreth’s birth, declaring that the child’s father was the One himself. If this was true, it gave Noreth the strongest possible claim to be Queen. She was educated first in Adenmouth, where she was left in the care of her aunt Eltruda, and then at the Gardale Lawschool, from which she graduated early, then spent the next two years at Dropwater as junior law-woman to her cousin Luthan. The Midsummer after her eighteenth birthday Noreth returned to Adenmouth, where she formally declared her intention of riding the royal road to claim the crown.
North, the seven earldoms of Hannart, Gardale, Aberath, Loviath, Dropwater, Kannarth, and the North Dales, all these being north of a line drawn east and west from the Point of Hark. This was the earliest part of the kingdom of Dalemark and also the most mountainous, where the people, though generally poor, had a long tradition of independence and freethinking. The earls of the North quickly learned that injustice was not to be tolerated (quite a few earls lost either their lives or most of their subjects to the mountains while this lesson was being learned), and the laws of the North were therefore fair and lenient, applying to earl and commoner alike. From well before the reign of the Adon, the North was known as the place of freedom. It was also, perhaps because it was the oldest-settled part of Dalemark, renowned for strange old beliefs and even stranger happenings.
North Dales, the earldom immediately to the north of South Dalemark. Though it was cut off from the South by a range of high mountains, the people there were used to dealing with the South (often as smugglers) and were in some ways more akin to the South than to the North.
Northern Cross, the most noticeable constellation in the night sky at all seasons, invaluable to sailors because it revolved around the true north. Other well-known constellations are Enblith’s Hair, the Flatiron, the Big Cat, the Kitten, Hern’s Crown, and the River. Astronomy was not much studied in Dalemark until the reign of Amil the Great, so that although it was known that the world was round and circled the sun, little account was taken of the planets. Sailors called them the Unreliable Stars, for always moving about, or the Unchancy Ones.
Old Flate, the flatlands toward Waywold in South Dalemark, part of the earldom of Holand which had once been drained and farmed but allowed to return to marsh in the course of the two centuries before the Great Uprising because of the ruinous taxes imposed by the earls of Holand. The Old Flate became the haunt of snakes, criminals, and disease.
Old Man, the highest mountain in Hannart, at the south end of the dale, thought to be named for the One.
Old Man of the Sea, a seeming priest who appeared to certain people in the Holy Islands, an aspect of the One.
Old Mill, across the River from Shelling in prehistoric Dalemark, where the first spellcoat was completed and the second begun. It had become a forbidden place for the villagers after the marriage of Closti and Anoreth. Some said it was haunted by the ghost of a woman, others that it was the abode of bad spirits, and still others that the
River had cursed the place. As the King’s men found mussels being cultivated on a system of ropes in the millpond, it appears that not everyone in Shelling believed these tales.
Old Smiler, Mage Mallard’s derisive name for the King of the Riverlands.
Old Writing, a system of syllabic signs in use before letters were developed, which came to be thought of as magical. It was often used in spells or for inscriptions intended to be potent.
Olob, the shortened name of Barangarolob, Clennen the Singer’s horse, which Clennen often said he would not part with for an earldom.
Ommern, one of the Holy Islands, the greenest.
Ommersay, one of the larger of the Holy Islands.
One, the greatest of all the Undying, whose face could not be looked upon and whose names could not be spoken. The One was said to have fathered the human race by his union with the witch-queen Cenblith, at which time he made the great River of prehistory and was for centuries bound by magic at its source. He was at length unbound by the Weaver and shook the country into its present mountainous state when he defeated the mage Kankredin.
The One was worshiped as a god by the invaders from Haligland and for a long time remained a god in the North of Dalemark, where many beliefs and customs about him still remain, but he was almost unknown in the South. Nowadays he is regarded simply as an old superstition.
Or, er, ro, a particle inserted into a name to give the meaning “younger” or most often “youngest.” Compare Barangalob and Barangarolob, Tanamil and Tanamoril, Osfamon and Osfameron, et cetera.
Oreth, one of the secret names of the One, the least known, meaning “he who is bound.”
Orethan the Unbound, the name by which the One was known after the Weaver released him from the spells of Cenblith and Kankredin. This name is almost never spoken.
Oril, one of several names taken by Mage Mallard to disguise the fact that he was of the Undying.
Orilsway, a town which grew up at the junction of the green roads in the far north of Dalemark, possibly taking its name from Mage Mallard in his guise as the Wanderer. When the green roads were abandoned as highways, Orilsway fell into ruin and was only rebuilt and resettled after the coming of the railways.
Osfameron, one of the two names taken by Mage Mallard in his guise as a minstrel and meaning “Osfamon the younger.” It is not known who Osfamon was. Under this name Mallard became the friend of the Adon, whom he raised from the dead, and also created the cwidder with which he is said to have made mountains walk, later bequeathed to Moril Clennensson.
Palace of Earl Hadd in Holand in South Dalemark. Most earls, even in the South, lived in much humbler mansions, but Earl Hadd, perhaps because he insisted on his entire family’s living with him, enlarged and renamed his dwelling. The palace was largely destroyed in the Great Uprising.
Pali, a prison guard in Neathdale in South Dalemark who was a secret freedom fighter.
Panhorn, an intricately curled horn with four mouthpieces and eight valves, very difficult to play.
Paths of the Undying, a name for the green roads of North Dalemark used by those who believed that the Undying created and maintained them.
Peace-piping, a very difficult form of musical magecraft in which the mage must first use his pipes to echo the anger of combatants and then reduce their feelings to calm and shame. Moril Clennensson unwittingly used a form of peace-piping on Tholian, Earl of the South Dales.
Peelers, Lawschool slang for willow wands with the bark peeled off.
Penner, Ganner Sagersson.
Pennet, a village between Waywold and Holand in South Dalemark.
Piper, the name most often used, from the time of the Adon onward, for Tanamil of the Undying, onetime lord of the Red River. It was said that being released from bondage at the same time as the One, Tanamil went to the Holy Islands, where his piping may still sometimes be heard on calm evenings.
Point of Hark, the high rocky peninsula that divides North from South Dalemark waters.
Poor Old Ammet, the full name of the image made of plaited wheat decorated with fruit and flowers and ribbons which was thrown into the harbor in Holand in South Dalemark each year at the Sea Festival. Opinions vary as to whether this ritual echoes some personal sacrifice by one of the Undying or is simply a charm for improving the harvest, but what is certain is that any boat which picks up Poor Old Ammet beyond the harbor has good luck ever after. This is rare; the tides and currents have to be exactly right. Usually the image sinks in the harbor.
Portable organ. See Hand organ.
Porter, the main spy for North Dalemark, operating under the noses of all the earls of the South, and the most wanted man in the South. He reported to Hannart almost everything the Southern earls wished to keep secret, organized freedom fighters, and ran a rescue service for wanted men and women. The Porter was operating for most of the eleven years prior to the Great Uprising.
Prest, one of the Holy Islands, large, with high crags.
Prestsay, a small rocky island in the Holy Islands.
Proud Ammet, a big merchant ship based in Holand in South Dalemark, where Earl Hadd’s assassin seems to have been when he fired. Like all the big merchant ships, this one was named from the Sea Festival.
Ratchet, a cat found by the children of Closti the Clam on their journey up the great River, named from the sound of her purring.
Rath Clan, sometimes called the Sons of Rath, the royal clan of primitive Haligland into which Kars Adon and Ked were born. The clan colors, which appeared on banners and in clothing, were red and blue.
Rattles, rotating wooden rattles, where the noise is produced by a wooden flange meeting a ratchet, which are traditional at the drowning of Old Ammet in the Holand Sea Festival. The rattle users are always small boys dressed half in red and half in yellow.
A Reader for the Poor, a book designed to teach working people to read. It was written by a clerk in Carrowmark who had little imagination. A typical page begins, “Ham beats the cask. He knocks in five nails. Will that make it hold water?”
Red One, one of the names for Tanamil the Piper.
Riss, a seaman aboard the flagship Wheatsheaf in the Holy Islands.
Rith, a boy’s name, fairly common in North Dalemark.
River, the mighty prehistoric watercourse which flowed north through Dalemark from a source somewhere near Hannart. It was said that the One made the River, and that the River was both the One and the soul of the land, and that it was the path of souls on their way to the sea. The River was destroyed by the One when he shook the land to rid it of the evil mage Kankredin. It only remains nowadays as two small rivers, the Ath and the Aden, and in the belief that the souls of the dead travel down the constellation of the River to oblivion in the sea of the universe.
Riverbed, the spirit land behind the great River, otherwise called the River of Souls.
Riverlands, the correct name for the prehistoric kingdom of Dalemark.
Rivermouth, the place where the great prehistoric River of Dalemark ran out into the sea in the north, through a delta of marsh, quicksand, and changing tides and currents. Its remains can be seen today in the bay between Aberath and Adenmouth, where there are still treacherous currents and constantly changing shoals.
Robin, the eldest child of Closti the Clam and Anoreth of the Undying, whose birthright was knowledge. Unlike her brothers and sisters, Robin passes clean out of all history and legend after the narrative of the spellcoats. It is possible that stories about her have been lost or attributed to her more spirited sister, Tanaqui.
Royal road, the green roads of North Dalemark between Adenmouth and Kernsburgh. Tradition said that each new monarch should make this journey on the old roads before claiming crown and kingstone at Kernsburgh.
Rugcoats, the poncholike garments of woven wool worn by men and women over their other clothing in prehistoric Dalemark.
Rugcoats for weddings were presented by a girl’s family in prehistoric Dalemark to a husband-to-be as a sign that the t
wo were officially betrothed; the groom then wore the rugcoat at the wedding. These rugcoats were always of specially fine weaving, usually with words all over. It was believed that the coat brought luck to the wedding, and possibly children, too. If the bridegroom did not wear the coat at the wedding, it was a sign that the bride would soon be either deceived or a widow. If the groom gave the coat back before the wedding, the betrothal was broken off.
Rushing people, the souls of the dead that hurry along the Riverbed toward the sea.
Rush mat, woven by Mage Mallard to deceive the King of the Riverlands. Weaving in any form is a potent spell.
Rusty, a ginger tomcat found by the children of Closti the Clam on the journey up the great River.
Sailing in grybo, Lawschool slang for being in the clear, without black marks.
Sard, a trusted soldier of the King of the Riverlands—trusted because he enjoyed killing.
Scap, Lawschool slang for the spring solstice.
Scarnel, a pipe made of pea or bean stalks, hollowed and varnished, traditionally played at the Sea Festival in Holand in South Dalemark by any number of amateur players. The sound is indescribably horrible.
Sea Festival, celebrated in autumn and called the Autumn Festival or Harvest elsewhere in Dalemark and peculiar to Holand in the South. Two images, one of straw and one of fruit, are carried down to the harbor in a procession of men clothed in red and yellow, draped with garlands and wearing traditional hats, accompanied by music from traditional instruments and by other lesser images; at the harbor with solemn words the two greater images are thrown into the sea. This is followed by feasting.
“The Second March,” one of seven tunes used by soldiers to march to all over Dalemark. “The Second March” has a jaunty tune and is generally more in favor in the North.
Sein right, Lawschool slang for the right to start grittling. The team with sein right could choose weapons and set up the first move.
Sending Day, at the Lawschool, the day on which pupils returned home for the summer. Pupils’ families were asked to attend the closing ceremony before they removed the pupils.